Congratulations to Brandon and Tkale. They will go down in history as the first Mill City Church wedding!

They have been a part of the LIFT Team since the beginning. Brandon leads the Load-in team and Tkale serves in Mill City Kids. Thank you for your faithful service.

We are so excited for the two of you! As your community we are with you and for you, cheering you on, and excited to see what the future holds. We pray God's richest blessings on you both, that you may grow as one as you grow in Him.

I recently read through The Jesus Storybook Bible with my four boys and loved it! Not only do I deem it required reading for parents with small children; I consider it a must read for all ages. The message isn’t only for the 4-7 year old audience but one that needs to be grasped by young and old.

I think it is so valuable because it emphasizes the macro-story of the Bible over the details and micro-stories within. Don’t get me wrong. The micro-stories are important but I am thrilled that my boys will know that the Bible is one massive story of love, rescue and redemption as they learn the individual stories.

Reading this book reminded me of the beauty of the Bible and I thought about the different ways that the Bible is often approached. The approach is key. If we approach something from the wrong premise then everything that follows is going to be off. For example, if I approach playing football like it is a basketball game then it will not matter how well I pay basketball; I am going to miss all that comes with playing football.

So if the right approach to the Bible is the macro-story of God, what are some of the other ways we approach the Bible? Or to ask the question another way - What is the Bible not?

The Bible is not a book of disconnected stories. All of the stories within Scripture point to God. They reveal a God with a master plan and ultimately point to Jesus. Take the stories of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22), Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 45), the healing of Naaman (II Kings 5), or Jonah at Nineveh (Jonah 4). They are great stories on their own but they all foreshadow the way in which Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, the rescuer of His people, requires a surrendered heart and the extravagance of His compassion.

The Bible is not a book of rules. God is not primarily interested in rules. There were some amazing rule keepers in the Gospels – they were the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. These were the guys with whom Jesus was most harsh. He was pushing against the notion that rule keeping is the bottom line. Life with God isn’t founded on rules but relationship. Relationship is the basis of a life with God and out of that will come a desire to embrace and obey the ways of God and reflect our membership in His family (I John 5:2-3).

The Bible is not a book of heroes. We sometimes think the Bible is a collection of stories laced with flawless Biblical superheroes. Take a closer look though and you won’t find any. You will find people like David the adulterer and murderer, Noah the drunkard, Jacob the liar and Rahab the prostitute. Are these the people after whom we are to try to model our lives? Maybe we are actually supposed to see ourselves in them and again realize how much we need Jesus!

The Bible is not a book of principles. One of the statements that grates on me is, “I used [insert verse here] to get [insert desire, need or dream here]”. Are there promises in the Bible? Yes. Is the Bible a book of promises that amount to guarantees that we hold God to? No. To approach it as such is to say the Bible is a self-help manual with some cool stories wrapped around some sweet if/then principles. Our American culture loves to turn everything into a product. The Bible isn’t a product to be “used” but an invitation into a cosmic redemption story.

The Bible is not about you. The Bible is about God. Obviously it has profound impact on us but it is not primarily about us. We are quick to make life all about us. Isn’t that the American way? Actually it is the human nature way. To center life around ourselves. Actually all of life including the redemptive work of Christ begins with, is sustained by and ends with God. (Romans 11:36, Colossians 1:16-17).

At Mill City we see the Bible as the timeless, cosmic story of God’s redemption, rescue and selfless love. When this is how we approach the Bible then our goal is determining how we fit into this story. I think that is beautiful!

At Mill City Church we desire to be a community marked by a hunger for God. This looks like attentiveness to His presence and activity; a longing for our lives to be shaped by Him. One of the ways we establish that is to cultivate a lifestyle of fasting.

By going without food for a period of time we are doing more than starving ourselves, we are:

*Being obedient (Matthew 6:16, 9:14-15)

*Imitating Jesus (Luke 4)

*Cultivating humility (Psalm 35:13)

*Orienting our hearts around what God wants.

The difficulty with this reorientation process is that our human nature and our culture cultivate a life that revolves around our wants and desires. I Peter 4:1-2 (Message) indicates that it is through suffering that we are able to strangle our selfishness.

Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.

So, in a society where we have so much, suffering isn’t always apparent. Fasting is a way to embrace suffering in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I LOVE the idea of fasting but I HATE the practice of fasting. The main reasons are that I don’t like being hungry and I love food!

It doesn’t take long for my stomach to growl, my mind to kick into justifications-for-breaking-my-fast mode, and opportunities to eat arise. But let’s not let these powerful temptations overshadow the value of going without what we want. When we can say no to food this translates to the ability to say no to other desires. Not all our wants are good for us, so it is important that we are able to say no. This isn’t just a self-discipline “no”, this is a grace-filled, God-inspired “no”. In Titus, the apostle Paul talks about how God is at work in this process.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. (Titus 2:11-12)

So when we fast, something bigger is going on. We are physically demonstrating a spiritual reality. We are saying, “Our greatest hunger in life is God.”

There are many words in our language that are very important but often because of their importance they get overused and actually begin to lose meaning. This is true of “love,” “authentic,” and more recently “community.” Community is a buzzword in our culture and something being heralded as a core value on many a church website.

So, when we say community at Mill City, what do we mean?

In his writing to the Ephesians Paul says:

He [Christ] is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence. (Ephesians 1:21-23 Message)

The community of faith is supernatural. This is an amazing mystery and not something we can fully wrap our heads around. The distinction of mystery keeps us from thinking that the community of faith is merely a Christian social club.

By calling it the Body of Christ, Paul is highlighting that it is not optional. It is called the Body of Christ on purpose. If we are to be associated with Jesus (the Head of the Church) then we are connected to one another in the Body. Our salvation is very personal but it is not private. By saying yes to Jesus we are saying yes to the family of God. Paul emphasizes this in the second chapter of his letter to the Ephesians.

You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. (Ephesians 2:19-22 Message)

When we understand Christian community as a body we also must accept the fact that we need each other. Every part of a body needs the other parts. The leg needs the heart, and the heart needs the spleen, and the spleen needs the skull, and the skull needs the chromosomes, etc. The body is not fully itself unless it has all its parts. In a world that emphasizes individuality and personal strength this can be difficult to embrace. We don’t just need each other to help each move or give a ride to the airport but to be who we are full meant to become. Check out what Paul also says in Romans 15:5-6 (Message).

He [Jesus] didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but waded right in and helped out. "I took on the troubles of the troubled," is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we'll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!

It is through community that we grow. That sounds wonderful…here is the problem. Community is not always easy! It is in this difficulty that we have an opportunity to mature and become more like Jesus. The work it takes to push through conflict, forgiveness and disappointment is the vehicle to this maturity. When we see the growth on the other side of the difficulty (i.e. facing our judgment towards others, dealing with our selfishness, laying our lives down) we can view community and everything that comes with it, as a gift. It may be a gift in ugly packaging, but it is a gift nonetheless.

As indicated in the above Scriptures, the love and commitment to the Body of Christ is a proclamation of the glory and presence of God, but it also says something else.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)

This last week we began weekly meetings for Mill City Church. We meet every Sunday night at 6pm at Grace Presbyterian Church at 300 Whedbee Street. We are so grateful to Pastor Scott Lowe and his wonderful congregation for their willingness and generosity to provide us with this beautiful space.

We are referring to these meetings as LIFT meetings, primarily because I don’t want to call them LAUNCH meetings. The reason is that I don’t like the word “launch”. It conjures up images in my mind of a bunch of people building a pad upon which to set a rocket before a huge countdown that leads to pushing a big red button to propel it into space. LIFT on the other hand, like in the case of an airplane, is about the push and necessary resistance it needs to get off the ground and ultimately stay in flight.

LIFT: the act or process of rising, to project, to support,

to assist, to elevate, to soar.

With LIFT there isn’t a countdown but instead a gaining of speed. It starts with a slow taxi followed by a rumble down a runway (sometimes even a bit of an uncomfortable rumble) before almost heaving itself off the ground. It’s less of an event and more of a process.

I don’t see the meetings we are having and the relationships that are developing as only necessary for a take off, but rather as the fuel necessary to create LIFT for take off AND flight.

Relationships and community are the context in which transformation happens in and through us. If we are going to be a church that is about being and making disciples then what is happening now is as important as when we start having a children’s ministry or meet on a Sunday morning. It is these relationships, grounded in love and centered on Christ that will be the fuel.

The Spirit of God is the One who will ultimately give LIFT to this church. May we participate with Him as we move forward in the days ahead.